The last Argentine dictatorship, which was headed by Gen. Leopoldo Fortunato Galtieri, had plans to attack Chile following the invasion and recovery of the disputed Falklands/Malvinas Islands in 1982, revealed former Argentine Air Force Gen. Basilio Lami Dozo on Sunday.

“Following the Malvinas, there were plans to attack Chile,” said the retired brigadier in an interview with Buenos Aires daily Perfil.

Former Brigadier Basilio Lami Dozo said Chile was next to be attacked after the Falklands incursion. PHOTO:  MERCOPRESS

Lami Dozo, together with Galtieri and Admiral Leandro Anaya, made up the military junta that was forced out of power after Argentina suffered a bloody defeat inflicted by the armada sent by British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher.

The former Air Force leader revealed that in 1982 when the conflict with Britain over the Falklands began, he asked Chile’s Air Force commanders not to send aircraft with offensive capacity to the south of the country.

“They behaved quite well, but not so the Chilean navy and the Chilean army, which were decisively in favor of Great Britain,” he said.

Lami Dozo also revealed that in 1978 he was commissioned to negotiate with Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet regarding the border dispute over three islands in the Beagle Channel, in the extreme south of the South American continent, which had both countries on the verge of an armed conflict. Conflict was forestalled at the last moment - when tanks had already begun rolling - by the direct intervention of Pope John Paul II.

Later, Vatican mediation headed by Italian Cardinal Antonio Samoré granted the three small, uninhabited islands to Chile, a conclusion overwhelmingly accepted by the Argentine electorate in a referendum held in 1984, when the country had returned to democracy.

Lami Dozo insisted that he never supported a conflict with Chile, but was up against the belligerent position of the more radical “hawks” in the army and navy.

“I wasn’t sure we could win,” he said. “I told our army that Chile’s armed forces would give us a tremendous assault at the beginning and that they could easily reach Rio Gallegos, Santa Cruz province. Obviously, with time, Argentina is larger and stronger and would force them back to the Andes. But yes, it was going to cost a lot of money and lives.”

According to the original plan, code-named Rosario, following the capture of the Falklands with no reaction or limited reaction from Britain, the Argentine military would move to take control of the disputed islands in the Beagle Channel, which are important to controlling access to the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

Lami Dozo’s fellow junta members, General Galtieri and Admiral Anaya, have both died. Anaya, before being named by his peers to the Junta, had been a naval attaché in London for several years, where he began planning the attack on the Falkland Islands.

Junta president Galtieri believed that Washington would look the other way during the Falkland invasion as a reward to Argentina’s military for their collaboration in fighting Communist regimes and guerrillas in the Americas.

SOURCE: MERCOPRESS
By The Santiago Times Staff ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it )